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Record of the Week: GAY KISS Preservation Measures LP

Filling out a hardcore full-length — at 33 rpm, no less—is one of the harder tasks in the challenging world of music, but after a 12” EP and a couple of 7”s GAY KISS have measured themselves up to the task. It helps if you’re a band that knows how to use the extra space, and GAY KISS are experts at twisting negative space in and out of time and tempo. The first track starts strong, rides out what sounds like a fade out of distant kick drum thump, then snaps back into a bedroom mosh-worthy breakdown. “Preservation Measures” is full of whiplash-inducing unpredictability and feverish guitar work, totally restless playing all over the frequency spectrum. Sometimes it sounds like the guitarist threw his instrument away in favor of a power drill or a dial-up modem hooked up to a Rat pedal. The strongest tracks here stretch out and use the empty space to let a riff unravel and implode before taking it somewhere else. “Relent,” for instance, lets a SACCHARINE TRUST-style riff collapse, cave in on itself and get back on its feet over and over again over a shifting set of fills. Fans of freaky hardcore bands in the game such as NASA SPACE UNIVERSE, the LOWEST FORM, and WHITE WARDS will find a lot to like here. Complete with some great cover artwork, another tremendously sick package from Sorry State.
(Sorry State)